Singapore still the world’s busiest port

Singapore has retained its position as the world’s busiest port in 2011 despite the challenges to the shipping industry over the past few years, reported Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency.

“For decades, we have retained our position as one of the world’s busiest ports in terms of vessel arrivals, bunker sales and container throughput,” Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam was quoted as saying by the agency.

“Vessel arrival tonnage was a record 2.12 billion gross tonnes in 2011 (up 10.5 percent from 2010). Total bunker sales in 2011 rose by 5.6 percent to 43.15 million tonnes, while container throughput for 2011 grew by 5.3 percent to 29.94 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units),” Law said in his address at the 2nd Annual Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration Conference in Singapore on March 20.

He said the maritime sector was important to Singapore, contributing 7 percent to gross domestic product and employing 170,000 people.